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Reduce your carbon footprint - personal options
Action Ideas *Low carbon communities *Personal carbon allowances *Energy saving - personal options *National 'Come off it' day *Low carbon cooking Why it matters (main article needed) News UK July 2009 *Performance of domestic wind small scale turbines highly dependent upon location say Energy Saving Trust Energy Saving Trust, (date of press release not found, presumed to be July 2009) topic Diary UK October 2008 *'2' National Carbon Footprint Day Related |* *Carbon Footprint on My Eco Guide }} UK *How to live a Low Carbon Life *The carbon coach - Site includes a quick and simple carbon calculator *Think purple *Best Foot Forward's carbon calculator. There are many others out there. This one is a quick and easy starter. *Act on CO2, Government developed calculator, launched June 20 2007 (The following section from Wikipedia - see below - needs integrating and further editing - for example the section on carbon offset, globalising or locating). Individual action Making various personal choices can be an effective method of fighting climate change . The Environmental Protection Agency's Personal Emissions Calculator is a tool for measuring the impact that individual choices (often money saving) can have. Lifestyle * Shopping: by making strategic consumer choices, one can reduce the production of greenhouse gases. Purchasing energy-efficient products helps reduce the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For example, aluminum packaging has a much more energy intensive production process than plastic packaging, and therefore higher greenhouse emission . * Recycling: Buying products that are reusable or recyclable, or contain reduced packaging, can save a significant part of the energy and resources required for manufacturing new goods. By recycling paper, cardboard, glass or metal, an average family could reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by up to one ton annually (where one family member (one American) produces one ton anually http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_mun_was_gen-environment-municipal-waste-generation). Cutting down on products used around the home, especially power-intensive electric products such as desktops, can have a large effect on overall emissions . * Public transport: More frequent use of public transportation helps the environment by reducing the use of cars. Boats and ferries are the most efficient method of fossil fuel transport, followed by trains, then buses. Airplanes can be more than ten times less energy-efficient than cars . Walking is the least impactful mode of transportation, followed by the bicycle, whose usage produces no carbon emissions. (The manufacturing of bicycles does emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants.) * Trees: Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air. There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard, along roads, in parks, and in public gardens. In addition, some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $US0.10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their landshttp://www.treesftf.org/about.htm. Conversely, clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere, so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest. * Labels: The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances, home electronics, office equipment, heating and cooling equipment, windows, residential light fixtures, and other products. Energy Star products use less energy. * Green Electricity Watch http://www.greenelectricitywatch.org.au/ is an independent ranking of GreenPower electricity products offered by Australian electricity retailers, providing consumers with a simple guide to all the GreenPower products available and which ones make a real difference in reducing global warming. It is an initiative of The Total Environment Centre, Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF Australia http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=1020. * Cars: Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. * Renewable energy: The use of alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro energy, is gaining increased support worldwide . The wind energy produced in Denmark, for example, provides about 20 percent of the country's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running. Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure "green energy." * Carbon offsets: The principle of carbon offset is thus: one decides that they don't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change, and they've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies. Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use. In many cases, funding of renewable energy, energy efficiency, or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual "carbon neutral". Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$0.11 per metric ton (US$0.10 per US ton) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action. * Using less animal products: The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization reports that rearing livestock contributes more greenhouse gases than all fossil fuel burning combined. A 2006 study from the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago found the difference between a vegan diet and red meat diet is equivalent to driving a sedan compared to a sport utility vehicle. In the US, %80 of agricultural crops and nealry %50 of water go to animal farminghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism#Environmental References Category:Personal options Category:Low carbon future Category:LS Ideas Bank Category:Climate change